This is not the most important article you will ever read

One of the many frustrating, albeit thought-provoking aspects of studying philosophy in college is a logic exercise that explores nuanced hypothetical scenarios. Commonly dubbed “possible worlds,” it’s a surefire way to ruin parties.

The idea is that there exists an infinite number of possible worlds. Suppose you had attended another college, married a different person, drank tea instead of coffee this morning, or opted to read something else in place of this. These worlds all exist and are complete depictions of the way things could be.

Without getting into its complex application in the field of modal logic, the use of possible worlds can help illustrate that declarative hyperbolic statements are largely foolish.   

For example, imagine if I said: “my dog is the best dog I could have.” Perhaps but perhaps not. What if I had visited the shelter one day sooner and adopted a dog that was equally special? There is a possible world in which that occurred, consequently there can be no objective truth to my original claim. I was merely speaking in hyperbole, using absolute terms to exaggerate a point. It’s a rhetorical device in which we embellish or intentionally overstate something for the sake of emotional arousal.

But sadly, our present world has morphed into the possible world in which no other possible worlds are allowed to exist. This is especially true if you watch cable news, talk to your uncle at holiday gatherings, or spend any time on Twitter. Why? We have lost the ability to engage in meaningful dialogue – the ability to present alternative worlds – in part because we misuse hyperbole.

Consider these tweets, both real and both proffered from blue checkmark accounts last week in lieu of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Donald Trump:

Misapplied hyperbole targets our hearts to redirect our minds whereas meaningful dialogue should instead target our minds to redirect our hearts. For a person who emphatically believes either of these to be true, there is no possible world in which an alternative might be true. There is no other way that things could be, precisely because these hyperbolic claims are intended to rouse our emotions.

In a 2017 study, emotions were shown to be a core underpinning of online communities representing various Brexit factions. It echoed a 2014 study that showed Facebook comments were more likely to mirror the emotions conveyed by the original post users were responding to. That is, a negative post would receive mostly negative emotional responses and vice versa.

And, because social media algorithms are structured to further reinforce echo chambers, not only is hyperbole rewarded but we are seldom presented with opposing hyperbolic statements, let alone factual ones. It is safe to assume the home Twitter feeds for both accounts mentioned above look drastically different from one another in terms of content, but the linguistic nature of the content is probably the same: caps lock, exclamation points, hyperbolic maxims.

As tedious as an undergraduate philosophy seminar can be, we must return to a possible world where possible worlds are possible. We need to re-embrace dialogue, for it is perhaps the most important thing we can do to ensure civic peace and progress.
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Co-authored by David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer, Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans was published by the Hachette Book Group under the PublicAffairs imprint on September 21, 2021. Now available to order!